[Garen LiLorian]

Free Will v. Determinism! Where's Bill Ferny when you need him? [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img]

I think perhaps I can address your examples individually, with my own opinion. But, as Aratlithiel points out, when you start talking about redemption, you start talking about whether it was their choice in the first place, and that leads you into a whole different can of worms. Anyway.

Boromir; In my opinion, Boromir was redeemed by trying to save Merry and Pippen. Even his attempt on the Ring was made with good intentions. (I know, I know. The road to hell...) All he wants, as he so eloquently puts it, is the strength to defend his people. This seems right and just to me, and, again in my opinion, Boromir didn't even need to be redeemed, as he had committed no wrong act. If he had taken the Ring, he still would not have been consciously "sinning" until he fell to its power and began using it for personal gain instead of protecting his people.

Gollum is different. He is immediately ensnared by it, and for no other reason then he wants it. So he was not a very good person to begin with, even before the Ring came into the picture. He kills his friend to claim it. In the end, he inadvertedly destroyes it. As Arthur says in "Once and Future King;" "I don't see why, if God is supposed to be merciful, people cannot stumble into Heaven as well as climb there." Of course, be that as it may, I don't agree. Gollum never redeemed himself in life, and even his one good act was inadverdent. Therefor, unless you assume he was simply doing as he was supposed to, and had no more choice about it than a stone has when you drop it, he is not redeemed.

Wormtongue is much like Gollum. As far as we know, he was not a good person even before Saruman bought him. And, to my way of thinking anyway, it is rather repulsive to think that he might have redeemed himself by committing murder. So no redemption for him either. Two wrongs don't make a right.

I'm not going to comment on the other examples for two reasons. First, I have no time. I have to go to work. Second, they are rather vague. It is difficult to either condemn or save an entire race of people. One of my favorite parts of the book is when Sam is thinking about the Man who has just been shot off the back of the Mumak. He wonders if he was really an evil man, or what lies he had been told to come, and whether he would not rather have stayed at home with his family. So it is difficult to say about the corrupted races of Men.